Peaks & PuddlesCycle routes and blog posts about cycling, walking and exploring High Peak.
Update February 2023: After extending the closure into 2023, Severn Trent Water now confirms “the route is now open however there are large timber trucks using the route, please be careful when using the tracks.” From today, Monday 12th September 2022, a large section of the route around the Upper Derwent Valley reservoirs is due to be closed to all users. For up to an estimated three months, it won’t be possible to complete a loop of the Derwent and Howden reservoirs.
Derbyshire County Council has announced the A57 Snake Pass will be closed again from late September 2022, but with a five-mile stretch blockaded as no through route for all users.
A new road closure order covering “all users” has just appeared for the one-way road between Errwood Reservoir and Derbyshire Bridge in the Peak District’s Upper Goyt Valley near Buxton.
“If the Authority is at all serious about enabling a sustainable future for itself, it needs to ensure that every car park it manages also has secure cycle parking available, in good numbers, as soon as possible.” That’s the challenge I put to the Peak District National Park, and I’m beyond chuffed that they’ve already responded.
Due to the “Extreme” red heat warning and risk of moorland fires now being at a “critical” level, the Peak District National Park has this morning suspended all public access to Access Land.
Where better to talk to Dame Sarah Storey about cycling safety on fast rural roads than Derbyshire‘s A5004 Long Hill — briefly a cycling paradise while closed to most vehicles. So it was odd that the BBC’s Countryfile failed to mention this fact while using it for background footage in a piece that has been much-criticised online.
The fifth book in the best-selling Lost Lanes series of cycling guides is set to focus on Central England – with author Jack Thurston (finally!) spotlighting some of the best Peak District cycling, amongst other routes around the Midlands.
The A5004 Long Hill between Whaley Bridge and Buxton, one of the Peak District’s most spectacular roads, is closed for up to five months for major works to fix a landslip. With concrete barriers blocking the through route for motor vehicles, could this be Derbyshire’s next unintended “Snake Pass”-style cycling event? Yes: you can absolutely bet it will be.
One of the three-stand cycle racks at Tesco’s High Peak Whaley Bridge superstore recently disappeared, replaced by a random electrical cabinet, halving the store’s already lacklustre cycle parking overnight and just a few years after it was put back to normal.
If you’d hoped to join everyone else taking a spin on the Peak District’s most epic new traffic-free greenway, it appears you’ve missed your chance. As of today, the Snake Pass has reopened to motor traffic with what Derbyshire County Council laughably calls a “safety first approach”. But has this month of tranquility proved the case for regular, or even very occasional, advertised, motor-free days on Peak District roads?
3.8 miles
34 m
